The Special Task Force (STF) of the Commercial Taxes Department has identified GST loot amounting to Rs 1.5 billion (150 crores). An FIR has also been filed in this regard in the Vaibhikhand police station. The FIR was filed by Commercial Tax Officer Manoj Kumar Dixit. The FIR mentions 142 bogus firms registered as suppliers of iron raw material. These firms were used to supply demands of iron raw material and evade GST tax.
All iron raw material in UP comes from Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh. Other than these iron products like TMT bars, angle and strips also come from these territories. Smugglers have registered fraudulent firms by misusing the online self-registration system of the Commerce Tax Department.
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- Thugs used 112 PAN, electricity bill, mobile number, and rented offices to carry out one of the biggest tax heists in modern times.
- By making a fake firm, thugs downloaded 3023 e-bills and procured 850 crores in various states.
- All documents being fake, the thugs have refrained from filing any return or making a declaration.
How the thugs duped government of nearly 1.5 billion rupees?
GST worth of more than Rs 65 crores was stolen against fake sales/purchase of 370 crore rupees. Next e-Way Bills were generated against fake transport vehicles. STF has identified 1591 trucks/vehicles of various transport companies used for freight traffic so far. Further, the Commercial Tax officer suggests that more such e-Way Bills against fake trucks may be unearthed in the course of the on-going investigation. Inspector DK Upadhyay, in-charge of Vishwas Khand police station, has already confirmed that an investigation has begun post FIR on the incident.
E-Way Bill: Every Thugs Delight?
The commerce tax official said that after the e-Way bill became compulsory, the information of every purchase and distribution had to be shared with the department. In such a situation, the thugs started attempts to get e-Way Bills in order to carry the goods. They made GSTN registration of fake firms by misusing the online registration system. Once registered the firms could easily get e-way bills to post sharing all proper information about the purchase and distribution of tax evasion from one place to another.
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There is only one motive for the thugs to get the e-bill and no one’s name can be found. For this, smugglers abused GSTN registration of fake firms while misusing the online registration system. Once registered, the firms received e-way bills after giving information about the purchase and distribution. After this, the goods were sent to the fake firms through GST channels.
